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I'm a big Dante buff, and have recently been exposed to this idea about his influence on Chaucer. I haven't read much Chaucer yet, though I am interested in getting through the Canterbury Tales. Can anyone speak to Dante's influence on him, and / or the influence of Italian on middle English?
Dante had a major stylistic influence on Chaucer - particularly with regard to the creation of a vernacular literature. He did in England what Dante did on the continent. Petrarch and particularly Boccaccio are more of an influence on The Canterbury Tales, but The House of Fame and The Parliament of Fowls are, at least in part, responses to Dante's work.